Fullmetal Wizard | Chapter 73

Shoulder length black hair just as dark and greasy looking as ever. Pale face a mask set in a sneer. Just looking at the man made his neck itch, and Ed rubbed at the bandage with his left. The cold eyes behind a hooked nose glided to him last. Severus nodded a slight nod. Ed nodded back.

"Mr. Lupin. I was not expecting such a... friendly..reception this evening. I trust everything is in order?"

"Yes. Yes. Everything's fine. Come in. We were... simply enjoying a bit of celebration."

"So I see." Ed imagined his cold eyes on Mrs. Weasley's tear streaked face, as the man walked past him. "Whatever for?" Severus said coldly.

"Hermione and my Ron were made Prefects for Gryffador this year." Mrs. Weasley sniffed.

"I can see why that would make for such a..happy.. occasion." Severus said, pausing in his steps right by Mrs. Weasley. Ed nearly rolled his eyes at Harry's clear facial expression of revulsion. It was like a gauge to measure Severus's physical presence, getting more obvious the closer the man got to Harry. "However much it pains me to not to be joining your festivities this evening, Mrs. Weasley, I have something of importance to discuss with the Order."

"Of course. The party's just about finished, anyway. Off to bed with you Harry. Go on now." Mrs. Weasley brushed her face off quickly with her hands, and cupped one hand around Harry, gently maneuvering him towards the stairs.

"Ed..?" Harry glanced over his shoulder. "Are you ok..?"

"Yeah..dhink so." Ed said, and managed to dredge up a smirk for Harry. "I'll be up zoon. Ztill have to..uh..clean my..um.. mess before I can zleep anvway.."

Harry regretfully went up the stairs and approached the room he shared with Ed and Ron. He had wanted so much to talk to Ed. Just to find out what he had seen was.

'He COULDN'T fight off a boggart.' Harry thought, still finding himself mystified by the realization. He had known how to fight one off since he was taught to by Profession Lupin in his third year.

He opened the door looked about the room. He saw loose papers strewn all over, covering the floor, his bed, and Rons. Harry looked at Ed's bed and found that one the worst off of them all. It looked as though Ed's mountain of books, papers, and notebooks had exploded. He shuffled in, parting the papers with his feet as he made his way.

"What the..?" Ron stammered, and Harry looked over at his friend's wide eyes. "We just finished cleaning..!"

"It's Ed's..he said he'd clean it." Harry said.

"Mum's acting weird..she hugged me so hard I'd thought she broke a rib."

"Yeah..well. I saw..that boggart..um..You were dead."

"Really? Wow...I never..um..I guess I should've.." Ron blinked. "Um..did she do it in?"

"No..Lupin did. Don't tell your dad. She made me promise not to tell, so I'm making you."

"Don't worry. I can use it later when I want something."

Harry made it to his bed with his shuffling walk and began to pick his way through the papers on his bed.

He watched Ron as didn't bother. He just walked right on top of the papers, crunching them underfoot, and, once he got to his bed, with one sweep of his arm all the papers there were tossed to the floor.

Harry raised his eyebrows, as Ron settled onto his bed. Ron looked at him.

"What?"

"You're not scared of him anymore?"

"Spitless. But figure the git doesn't care for his own things, why should I?"

Harry blinked, and had to admit Ron had a point. He swept the papers on his bed down onto the floor as well, and climbed on. He looked around..from that vantage point he could almost imagine it all as snow.

There was a knock on the door.

Ron reached over and opened it. Hermione and Ginny peeked around the door.

"Came to say g'ni..Cripes!" Ginny said, blinking at the strewn papers all about the room.

"What happened? I mean..he was sorting it all right? Why all the sudden..?" Hermione said

"I think..um..He..did this after he got in front of the boggart..."

"What?..You didn't..Spill it, mate. What was it?" Ron said, and hugged his pillow, looking excitedly interested.

Harry blinked, and shook his head. Stuggling to find the words. He took a breath.

"It...looked.." Harry began. ".. sort of like..um..only not...and um no..felt sort of...like a Dementor..only it.. wasn't..I can't really...I just don't know WHAT it was, really." Harry finished, blinking, realising he stammered though his entire description, and he didn't really say anything meaningful at all. He looked at each of them, and swallowed.

"It's his fear, Ron." Hermione said. "And it's private."

Hermione, seeing that they were decent, opened the door and bent to begin the task of tidying up. Ginny joined her.

"At least I know the git's afraid of something." Ron pouted. "'Dementor-like', huh? Sounds creepy."

Harry nodded.

"You have no idea. He didn't know it wasn't real. We had to convince him right at the front door. I really thought he was going to leave again."

"Scared him that bad. Huh." Ron chewed on his bottom lip.

"That's the thing. He wasn't scared at all from what I could see. It was more like..it was an emergency. Like he had to go and do something straight away."

"Harry..Ron..look!" Hermione said excitedly, holding up some papers. Whatever they were, they had scribbles and notations all over in Ed's scrawl.

"It's notes. What's so.." Harry said

"No...is that what I think.." Ron said

"He HAS to be a wizard! No matter WHAT he says..he has to." Ginny said.

Hermione stood up and shuffled her way through the papers much like Harry had done earlier. She then handed Harry the notes. Admidst the scrawl, he could plainly see what was much like his own welcoming letter. Only it was addressed to Ed. Harry blinked.

"Clearly didn't like the idea very much." Ron said. "I mean, look at it. Covered with..um..what is it anyway..?

"I think it's math." Hermione said. "I recognise 2 symbols..but the rest..and his writing.."

"..I can read it..barely. Not this, though." Harry said and handed the papers back.

"...says Dumbledore wants to assess him for placement..." Hermione said, picking her way through the notes and scribbles.

"What. They missed him?" Ron said.

"How can they miss a wizard? Don't they get put on a list as soon as they're born or something?" Harry said, remembering he had been told just that by Hagrid his first year.

"Yeah." Hermione said, blinking, face scrunched in confusion. "It was in Hogwarts..A History..."

Ed watched them go on their way, Mrs. Weasley urging them all up the stairs. Mrs. Weasley gave Ron so great a hug that he squeeked, proving that he was both alive and himself to Ed. Still, Ed's chest felt incredibly tight as he watched them all, the words "I hate you.." in his beloved brother's voice echoing in his ears.

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